Every veteran needs to take a Promotion Exam every 30 level until Level 150. The exam assesses the candidates in four different skills: Combat Knowledge, Flair Competency, Solo Combat Skill, and Teamwork Combat Skill. If a veteran passes the exam, they will be authorized to enter Soul Rifts and Arenas in accordance with their rank. If the veteran fails, they are obliged to retake the test and are barred from higher level zones until promotion.

Excerpt from "Military Law: Oscen Kingdom (1314)"

Eugene De Lavet

"Noooooooooooooooo!" I screamed in excruciating pain while brushing Melodi's toilet with a tiny toothbrush. This is the second worst punishment she could've given me, right on par with getting my limbs crushed under ten thousand tons of rocks and just a notch below getting sent to the seven depth of Hell. Just a notch.

"If I see so much of a stain on that thing, you'll scrub the whole bathroom all over again." Melodi's peevish command echoes from outside.

"Kill me now." I scrub on the lid. It's so shiny I can see my own handsome face, but the last time Melodi went in to check, she still managed to pull a stain out of nowhere. I swear it wasn't there before she walked in, and it probably fell out of her locks like dandruff. "Doesn't she have an actual toilet brush or something? I guess she's not the type to clean her bathroom. Maybe she thinks if she ignores the filth long enough, they'll crawl their way to my house," I mutter to myself.

"I can hear you!" yells Melodi.

"Please don't bash my face with a saucepan," I plea. You don't get any privacy around Melodi Baggardo, since she can catch and listen to any sound if she concentrates enough, no matter how low they are. I once tried to test her auditory range by bad-mouthing her inside my own room a few hundred meters away from her. It ended pretty badly for me, the face-inside-saucepan kind of bad.

"Why do I have to protect a person like you. . ." She sighs as she leans against the toilet door, a kitchen knife on one hand and an apple on another.

In the records, Melodi Baggardo is my partner and assigned bodyguard, which makes no sense. I'm neither an important enough figure who needs protecting, nor is Melodi stronger than me (arguably). But I heard that the King of the ancient kingdom Solody had an army of ten thousand guards, even though he's more powerful than all of them combined. I guess rich and influential people can't be bothered to fight when they can just employ someone to do the grunt work.

"Do I look like I need protecting? I'm a self-made man; the best swordman in all of Likimi." I scrub on the toilet rim triumphantly. "If anything, I should protect you. I'm quite a charmer when it comes to slaying ogres."

She starts peeling the apple. "I don't need your help. There's nothing in this world that ever scares me—COCKROACH!"

The knife on her hand flies toward me and I duck to the ground. I look down and see the little creature with its pecan brown wings flapping and antennas rising like Satan's horns. When I raise my face, Melodi has already disappeared. It takes the rustling on the ceiling for me to realize the girl's galloped to the ventilation pipe above, screaming as she trembles. "Cockroach; cockroach; cockroach! G-g-get it away!"

How did she even get up there?

"Heh. Why don't you scream it out of your sight, Miss Fearless?"

"Do you want this entire place to turn upside down? Chase it away!"

I pace around the harmless creature, smirking. "Say please."

The cockroach starts flapping its wing, and Melodi clutches the pipe so hard it starts to bend downward.

"Please," her face contorts into a scowl.

"I didn't hear you."

"PLEASE!"

"Try make me do housework for you one more time and I'll call upon my friends, Mark the Mantis and Gary the Grasshopper." I grab some toilet paper to cover my hand then catch the cockroach mid-air, then release it outside. Then I say as I turn back, "now I think getting rid of your arch nemesis is a fair price for my freedom. . ."

"Eugene!" Melody lunges at me, teeth gritting and face reddened. Instead of granting me freedom, she grants me a punch to the face.

"Stop hitting me, you hysterical witch!" I cover my face with my hand. The hits don't really hurt since my endurance level is high enough, but that's the whole point. She'll hit me until I suffer.

That's a nature of our relationship. I'm her ogre-slaying, cockroach-expelling hero, and she repays me with violence.

"Say please." She grits her teeth.

"You're so weak for such a big girl." I laugh.

"Who do you call big?" Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it. I meant voluptuous! N-no, wait, I mean—"

Her eyes extend as they drill into me. "You've chosen death."

I've lost count of how many thwacks I had to endure that day.

***

"Con I have som wothor. . ." I clasp on my swollen cheeks as I wail. The girl in front of me has been walking non-stop for the past hour, a huge backpack on her back as if my trip (now our trip because she wants it that way) to Lady Tanaka's shop is something of a picnic for her.

"You want what?" She growls, gnawing on her apple.

"Wothor. I'm thirssy."

She throws me her water jug without looking back. "Next time try pronouncing it correctly."

"Shouldn't have hit me then, wretched witch."

"You want an apple too?"

"I wouldo loved one if I could still move my jow without horting a thousand muscles."

Lady Tanaka's shop shrouds itself behind groves of maple trees in the Southern wood. As we climb, the forest brazenly greets us with steep inclines, sudden curves, and chilly Southern wind. Flitting streams of vermillion maple leaves twirl in front of my eyes, cloaking over the arctic blue outline of Kirai mountain and the lone Shinto shrine creatively named Southern Mountain that mounts near the peak. Melodi has always called this place romantic whenever we have to climb up here, but I just think it's rude. I mean, mountainsides are the least welcoming terrain known to men! Why does it have to be both steep and windy? And who sets up a shop in a place like this? I don't think Lady Tanaka gets a lot of customers.

The iridescent dome of the shop glimmers at us as we get inside her garden. The shop are basically wooden columns erected on top of a flat, stone-packed foundation, elevated a few centimeters off the ground. Red silk lanterns are hung on both sides of the entrance, candles ignited inside of them (ever though it's mid-day). The sweet, subtle smell of cherry and scented candle wafts through the air.

Melodi knocks on the wooden wall then removes her shoes before entering. Lady Tanaka doesn't like people walking around her shop with shoes on, and I swear she sweeps her floor every hour or so. They say that a shop that's too clean isn't a good shop, because that means the owner isn't bustling with patrons. But it's not like she'll ever get customers when the sole reason this 'shop' is opened is to merge items for a residents of a forest with a whopping population of fifteen humans and five thousand bisons.

The Lady, well in her 30s with white hair and elegant features, is sitting on her working desk near the shopfront and writing calligraphy with her ink-soaked brush. She eyes us, nods, says, "how may I help you today?" before looking down at her scribbles again. She doesn't even bother asking about my swollen face; she's seen it many times and knows the cause full well.

"Eugene wants to merge some boots."

"Very well. Place the boots on the round table over there. I will finish this letter promptly."

I take a glance at the weapons, helmets, and accessories on the wall, all of which were crafted by the Lady herself. She's one of the few people whose Flair can generate Soulcraft Orbs for merging and crafting of accessories. She's good enough to generate Legendary orbs, which should've made her sought after by warriors and merchants throughout the lands. For a thousand commoners, there's a craftmaster, an it's even harder to find a craftmaster with the type of flair you're seeking for. At least they're not as rare as Worldbreakers. Those people are one in a million, literally. The only Worldbreakers I've ever known are King Guinness from the old Lore book and the couple of people I learned from Captain Azra's tales from when he used to not be stuck inside a forest.

How she ended up here is a mystery. How anyone ended up in this God-knows-where place is a mystery.

Right in the middle of the front wall is a red body armor made from heavy metal plate put together using laces, silk, and leather. It enamates a bloody glow whenever a person touches on its surface. That's the most valuable asset on display: the Shōgun's Pride.

"I hope I can put it on one day," says Melodi as she sighs in exasperation. General Rizeni doesn't wear it because he already has legendary armor, and nobody else apart from Captain Azra is at a high enough level to even touch it without jerking and convulsing. Even if someone else could equip it, they wouldn't have been able to because the General had explicitly said he wanted to give the armor to a future General. Therefore, it's hung here, wilting away despite obvious avidity.

The round wooden table in the middle of the room is divided into four equal parts, each on with a slide cover over hollow spaces underneath. I open three covers and put three pairs of Klaiswood Boots inside of them. Lady Tanaka stands, rubs her palms together before slowly pulling her hands apart. A Rare Soulcraft Orb appears between her palms, glowing with a faint azure light. She walks over to us and put the orb into the remaining cover, then sprinkles a pinch of sugar on top of it.

"Fifty copper coins, please," she says without smiling. But she's said it enough for us to know it's just an unfunny joke. Soulcraft Masters are supposed to charge for every orb they generate, but Lady Tanaka doesn't. It isn't like money has a lot of uses inside a forest.

"Why sugar though, may I ask?" enquires Melodi. "I thought anything else would produce Soul or chemical reaction better. Soul powder, water snake venom, or even salt."

Lady Tanaka smiles. "Sugar is cheap. You don't waste snake venom on a Rare armor piece."

The Lady closes the cover and presses her palms on it until blue glows engulf her hands. She then rotates the table and stops it from spinning after about five rounds.

"Can I have a peek?" I reach out to the glowing slide cover, but the Lady hits on the back of my hand.

"Don't interfere or you'll ruin it," she says.

Instead of me sliding the cover, she slides it as if it makes a difference. She stares at the purple pair of slippers and murmurs, "Malyfair Satin Slippers. These boost Speed and Evasion. They suit you." It's impressive she knows what kind of footwear these are without looking up the SC database.

"But they're purple though. Look kinda hideous." I grimace.

"I'll wear a piece of pigskin if it gives me Legendary attributes," says Melodi.

"I mean, you've never been a dapper—" I stop as Melodi pinches my ear. "Ow, ow, ow!"

Melodi bows the Lady to express gratitude for her hard work, then she pushes me by the nape so I bow as well. I've never understood why the Lady thinks bowing is an expression of gratitute, nor do I understand why Melodi thinks spinning some tables is a tough job. If I wasn't training to become the legendary swordman, I'd take over Tanaka's task any day.

When we get outside of the shop, the sun's already hidden itself behind Kirai mountain. Melodi blankly stares at the blurry twillight, standing still even after I start moving.

I grab an apple from the side pocket of her backpack and take a bite. "Don't you have to go home? You have a Promotion Exam next week, right? That's why you've been training so hard lately. Hey, don't pick me as your partner in the teamwork test, okay? I don't want to have to train for somebody else's test."

When I don't hear an answer, I turn back to the dazed girl. "Hello? Did you see another cockroach or something?"

I follow her gaze and see the faint violet glow encroaching the maple woods. It's still a fair distance away from us and doesn't seem to be expanding any further.

"That's a violet glow so it's an Epic creature," I say. A typical Epic creature is not as strong as an Elemental Hound, but we're not yet at a level we can fight off such a monster by ourselves. Also, I'm pretty sure that part of the forest is the Forbidden Woods. The Forbidden Woods isn't named that way for no reason.

Melodi opens her backpack and takes out her flail and nunchaku. I squint my nose, knowing I don't want to be a part of whatever she has in mind.

The girl swings her flail and smashes it on the ground with a rumble. She cracks her finger and says, "Let's head there."